Sugarcane is a major source of sucrose, which is mostly used in food (after refinement) or as a fermentable carbohydrate to produce ethanol. Sucrose is a hetero-disaccharide of glucose and fructose.
Sucrose is typically manufactured from sugarcane in a process that comprises chopping, shredding, and milling by crushing and macerating in roller mills and in some cases comprises extracting the sucrose by diffusion. Milling is typically performed at temperatures of up to 60° C. and extraction by diffusion is typically performed at temperatures of up to about 80° C. The combined operations for the recovery of sucrose from sugarcane are referred to in the following as sucrose extraction.
Sucrose extraction efficiency depends on many factors, including, inter alia, the amount of fiber in the sugarcane. Typically more than 90% of the sucrose content of the sugarcane is extracted out of the biomass material. More typically more than 95% of the sucrose content is extracted.
Sugarcane juice comprises mainly sucrose, however as a result of the conditions of the process some of the sucrose is inverted into fructose and glucose.
The remaining biomass, after processing, is referred to as sugarcane bagasse or bagasse. Typically, bagasse comprises (on a washed and dried basis); 45%-55% wt cellulose, 20%-25% wt hemicellulose and 18%-24% wt lignin. Additional components such as ash and waxes are less than 5% wt.
Bagasse is mainly used for providing energy (more than sufficient for the sugar mill), to generate electricity by burning, as cattle feed and for intermediate and low quality paper. Bagasse could theoretically be used for the production of fermentable carbohydrates, e.g. for the production of ethanol. Yet, existing methods for producing fermentable carbohydrates from bagasse are not considered industrially feasible.
In the sugar industry, cane delivered to the processing plant is called burned and cut (b&c), and represents 77% of the mass of the raw cane. The remaining 23% includes the leaves (which are burned and whose ashes are left in the field as fertilizer), and the roots that remain in the ground to sprout for the next crop. Each ton of b&c cane yields 740 kg of juice (about 135 kg of sucrose and about 605 kg of water) and 260 kg of moist bagasse (130 kg of dry bagasse).
Sugar beets are another important source of sucrose. Sugar beets account for roughly 30% of the world's sugar production. The European Union, the United States, and Russia are the world's three largest sugar beet producers. The European Union and Ukraine are significant exporters of sugar from beets.
In this specification some solvents are defined in terms of a Hoy's cohesion parameter. By way of review, Delta-P is the polarity related component of Hoy's cohesion parameter and delta-His the hydrogen bonding related component of Hoy's cohesion parameter.
The cohesion parameter, as referred to above or, solubility parameter, was defined by Hildebrand as the square root of the cohesive energy density:
  δ  =                    Δ        ⁢                                  ⁢                  E          vap                    V      
where ΔEvap and V are the energy or heat of vaporization and molar volume of the liquid, respectively. Hansen extended the original Hildebrand parameter to a three-dimensional cohesion parameter. According to this concept, the total solubility parameter, delta, is composed of three different components, or, partial solubility parameters relating to the specific intermolecular interactions:δ2=δd2+δp2+δh2 
in which delta-D, delta-P and delta-H are the dispersion, polarity, and Hydrogen bonding components, respectively. Hoy proposed a system to estimate total and partial solubility parameters. The unit used for those parameters is MPa1/2. A detailed explanation of that parameter and its components can be found in “CRC Handbook of Solubility Parameters and Other Cohesion Parameters”, second edition, pages 122-138. That and other references provide tables with the parameters for many compounds. In addition, methods for calculating those parameters are provided.